I love reviewing guns. I started writing about guns because I like shooting them. The core work of reviewing a gun is shooting it. Rarely do I dislike the process of shooting a gun. Even a bad gun can be fun to shoot, and there is some thrill to uncovering the reason why a gun is bad. With that said, should the firearms and media apparatus disembark from the reliance on gun and gear reviews? Are all these reviews and review culture a net positive? Should there be a better focus on training?
Why Are Reviews So Popular?
It’s easy to see why reviews are popular. People like guns, people like new guns. Thus, people read reviews about guns. It shows across the internet. Ben Stoeger offers videos of his entire class for free, and some have less than 100K views. However, reviews of new handguns and rifles from popular creators explode.
Articles are the same way. Metrics on training articles are read less than gun and gear reviews. Some people read reviews for research purposes. Other people read reviews about guns after they’ve bought them to help reaffirm the purchase they’ve made. Some folks, like me, are just hardcore and enjoy reading and watching information about new guns.
Reviews are also easy on the viewer. They aren’t challenging you or pressuring you to do anything. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the content.
What’s The Downside of Gun and Gear Reviews?
Gun and gear reviews push what’s admittedly a consumerist mindset. Sometimes, people like buying and owning guns more than they like shooting them. Sometimes, this is for the free likes and upvotes on social media, so they buy guns purely for flex purposes. Other people just like to collect guns as a whole.
That’s fine. I don’t think owning lots of guns you don’t shoot all that often is bad. I have a small collection of S&Ws in .32 S&W Long that I rarely ever shoot. However, I don’t think gun media pushing consumerism is all that great. The firearms media has an influence on the entirety of gun culture, and if we are focusing entirely on reviews, we are propagating consumerism.
If we have the power to influence the gun community and gun culture, then should we be using that power to encourage more training?
Should The Gun Media Focus On Training?
Training isn’t easy, and it can be humbling. If you’ve only ever shot at your local range and have been the best shot in your friend group, then you might not realize your skill level as a whole. Go to a competition, and you’ll be humbled almost immediately. A lot of folks don’t realize how little they know about shooting until they’re tested.
Good training could propel the firearms culture forward. A focus on shooting and using your guns from the firearms media could help propel the idea forward with the general firearms world. I don’t think I, as an individual, have this steam.
I’m a small-time gun writer, so I’m not sniffing my own wanna-be influencer farts. I’m talking about the big guys, the big YouTube channels, Instagram gun guys, and the mainstream magazines like Recoil.
Having a community that’s just loaded to the teeth with guns and ammo isn’t as valuable as having a community that’s well-trained in marksmanship, weapon handling, and safety. Those hard skills are invaluable. If you have one less AR-15 in exchange for one carbine class, I think it’s a worthwhile trade.
It’ll also be better for gun rights. Better-trained shooters can make better arguments. Not only that, but the more people train, the more likely they will come together, and a community can be formed.
Gun And Gear Reviews Are Still Valuable
Gun and gear reviews are still great. I think they are needed, and I think they are better now than they’ve ever been. I don’t think we need to stop gun and gear reviews, and I don’t think people who write or film reviews are wrong.
My solution is just maybe to push more training articles and videos. Specifically, push more training to the end user alongside those reviews. Make training a part of your review even. This doesn’t remove the challenge of training and getting people ushered into it. That’s the difficult part of training.
Where do you start? Maybe we need more class reviews? Take classes from recognized instructors and publish those reviews. Make sure the class difficulty is part of the review, and much like guns, aim to point out who the class is for. These are just some simple ideas that have been occupying my brain housing group.
I think gaining and skill growth should be as focused as reviews, and as the gun media, we should make it happen.
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